# CVE-2022-50144: soundwire: revisit driver bind/unbind and callbacks > A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel SoundWire subsystem allows local attackers to cause a system crash by unbinding drivers. - **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`) - **Exploited in the wild:** Not known - **Login needed:** Any signed-in user - **Attackable:** Local or same network only - **Victim action needed:** Not needed - **Fix available:** Yes - **Published:** 18 Jun 2025 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50144, GHSA-q3p3-pxcf-64rg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50144, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50144 ## What is CVE-2022-50144? CVE-2022-50144 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### Official description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: soundwire: revisit driver bind/unbind and callbacks In the SoundWire probe, we store a pointer from the driver ops into the 'slave' structure. This can lead to kernel oopses when unbinding codec drivers, e.g. with the following sequence to remove machine driver and codec driver. /sbin/modprobe -r snd_soc_sof_sdw /sbin/modprobe -r snd_soc_rt711 The full details can be found in the BugLink below, for reference the two following examples show different cases of driver ops/callbacks being invoked after the driver .remove(). kernel: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000150 kernel: Workqueue: events cdns_update_slave_status_work [soundwire_cadence] kernel: RIP: 0010:mutex_lock+0x19/0x30 kernel: Call Trace: kernel: ? sdw_handle_slave_status+0x426/0xe00 [soundwire_bus 94ff184bf398570c3f8ff7efe9e32529f532e4ae] kernel: ? newidle_balance+0x26a/0x400 kernel: ? cdns_update_slave_status_work+0x1e9/0x200 [soundwire_cadence 1bcf98eebe5ba9833cd433323769ac923c9c6f82] kernel: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffffffc07654c8 kernel: Workqueue: pm pm_runtime_work kernel: RIP: 0010:sdw_bus_prep_clk_stop+0x6f/0x160 [soundwire_bus] kernel: Call Trace: kernel: kernel: sdw_cdns_clock_stop+0xb5/0x1b0 [soundwire_cadence 1bcf98eebe5ba9833cd433323769ac923c9c6f82] kernel: intel_suspend_runtime+0x5f/0x120 [soundwire_intel aca858f7c87048d3152a4a41bb68abb9b663a1dd] kernel: ? dpm_sysfs_remove+0x60/0x60 This was not detected earlier in Intel tests since the tests first remove the parent PCI device and shut down the bus. The sequence above is a corner case which keeps the bus operational but without a driver bound. While trying to solve this kernel oopses, it became clear that the existing SoundWire bus does not deal well with the unbind case. Commit 528be501b7d4a ("soundwire: sdw_slave: add probe_complete structure and new fields") added a 'probed' status variable and a 'probe_complete' struct completion. This status is however not reset on remove and likewise the 'probe complete' is not re-initialized, so the bind/unbind/bind test cases would fail. The timeout used before the 'update_status' callback was also a bad idea in hindsight, there should really be no timing assumption as to if and when a driver is bound to a device. An initial draft was based on device_lock() and device_unlock() was tested. This proved too complicated, with deadlocks created during the suspend-resume sequences, which also use the same device_lock/unlock() as the bind/unbind sequences. On a CometLake device, a bad DSDT/BIOS caused spurious resumes and the use of device_lock() caused hangs during suspend. After multiple weeks or testing and painful reverse-engineering of deadlocks on different devices, we looked for alternatives that did not interfere with the device core. A bus notifier was used successfully to keep track of DRIVER_BOUND and DRIVER_UNBIND events. This solved the bind-unbind-bind case in tests, but it can still be defeated with a theoretical corner case where the memory is freed by a .remove while the callback is in use. The notifier only helps make sure the driver callbacks are valid, but not that the memory allocated in probe remains valid while the callbacks are invoked. This patch suggests the introduction of a new 'sdw_dev_lock' mutex protecting probe/remove and all driver callbacks. Since this mutex is 'local' to SoundWire only, it does not interfere with existing locks and does not create deadlocks. In addition, this patch removes the 'probe_complete' completion, instead we directly invoke the 'update_status' from the probe routine. That removes any sort of timing dependency and a much better support for the device/driver model, the driver could be bound before the bus started, or eons after the bus started and the hardware would be properly initialized in all cases. BugLink: https://github.com/thesofproject/linux/is ---truncated--- Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50144? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2022-50144? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2022-50144 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50144 in the wild and no public exploit code. ## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel - [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild) - [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2022-50144 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2022-50144 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50144 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page. Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50144/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50144/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50144 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50144 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50144 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50144/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.